Gochujang-Butterscotch Sticky Date Cake

Audrey Young

One of my favorite hobbies is trying out unlikely food combinations. Pickles with mayonnaise or the classic fries with ice cream are two of my personal favorites. I would say my love for mix-and-matching foods has led me to become the furthest thing from a picky eater— take me to any restaurant, and I will try anything on the menu. However, when Eric Kim’s recipe for Gochujang Caramel Cookies in the New York Times appeared on my Instagram feed, I was caught off guard. To me, as a Korean who grew up in Korea my entire life, gochujang in dessert felt like a crime. Traditionally, gochujang is not something you put into dessert; it is an ingredient in savory, flavorful dishes such as tteokbokki or kimchi. Think of it like putting hot sauce in a caramelized dessert—it’s the same concept. So, you could understand why I was shocked, maybe even a little disturbed for a second. Yet, I realized that this is exactly why I love trying “weird” food combinations: there’s an excitement with never knowing if you will enjoy it or not until you try it. 

Instead of making Eric Kim’s cookies, I wanted to put my own spin on the gochujang-caramel combination and created my gochujang-butterscotch sticky date cake. The recipe is very simple and requires little professional skills or materials, so it is also the perfect recipe for college students to try. And, of course, I am sharing this recipe with you because this unlikely food combination turned out to taste extraordinary.


Ingredients for sticky date cake:

  1. 1 cup finely chopped dates

  2. ¾ cup hot espresso (regular coffee works too)

  3. 100g room-temperature unsalted butter

  4. 150g dark brown sugar

  5. 2 eggs 

  6. 150g all-purpose flour

  7. 1 tsp baking powder

  8. 1 tsp cinnamon

  9. ½ tsp nutmeg

  10. ½ tsp ginger


Ingredients for gochujang-butterscotch sauce:

  1. 185g unsalted butter

  2. 165g dark brown sugar

  3. ⅔ cup heavy cream

  4. 1 tbsp gochujang


Instructions for sticky date cake:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180℃/356℉.

  2. Pit your dates (it’s easier if you buy pitted dates) and finely chop them. I used a chopstick to poke out the pits.

  3. Pour the hot espresso into the dates and mix/mush the mixture with a fork until it turns into a paste-like consistency. 

  4. In another bowl, mash up your room-temperature butter until smooth. Then add your dark brown sugar and mash them up together.

  5. Crack in your eggs and whisk with the fork until combined.

  6. Add in the date-paste and stir until well combined.

  7. In another bowl, add your dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Use a sieve when adding them into the bowl if you have one. Whisk with a fork until well combined.

  8. Add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients in halves. Fold in gently with a wide spatula, just until you don’t see any streaks of flour. Be careful not to over-mix, as this will cause your cake to become tough.

  9. Add the batter into a pan well sprayed with baking spray. 

  10. Place into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Instructions for gochujang-butterscotch sauce:

  1. Melt the butter, sugar, cream, and gochujang in a pot over the stove.

  2. Once there are no sugar granules left, let it simmer on low until you can smell a deep, caramel-like scent. Once you smell this, take the butterscotch mixture off of the stove. (This is the easy and simple technique I use to make the sauce. It isn’t the professional way, but it works.)

  3. Let your sauce cool.

Instructions for plating:

  1. Once the cake is out of the oven, cut a piece onto a plate.

  2. Poke holes into the cake with a fork or chopstick. This will help the sauce absorb into the cake.

  3. Add your toppings. I added strawberries and vanilla ice cream—the ice cream is essential.

  4. Drizzle a generous amount of sauce onto the cake. The point is to have the cake drenched in the sauce, so don’t be afraid to add a lot.

  5. Serve immediately. It is best when warm.

The depth of flavor from the dates, the sweetness of the butterscotch, and the hint of non-overpowering spice from the gochujang created the perfect blend of flavors that satisfied all aspects of my palate. Also, unexpectedly, the strawberry I added as a topping went so well with the spice from the gochujang. I would definitely recommend adding it. Nonetheless, though I admit nothing beats the traditional sticky date cake, this recipe was a unique experience that taught me to be even more open-minded about food.

The final product

Melanie Wang1 Comment